


genius.

by flightofwonder



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (bruce banner's childhood? fun.), Adopted Sibling Relationship, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Kevin Feige Put Jennifer Walters In The MCU Challenge, Name Changes, POV Child, Protective Siblings, bruce's full name is Robert Bruce Banner, yeah i know they're cousins but lbh they're siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 11:54:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16158473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightofwonder/pseuds/flightofwonder
Summary: She didn’t mind if he was Bruce now, as long as he was still him.





	genius.

“Robbie?”

Jen knew that it was super late, and that if her parents woke up, she’d be in so much trouble. But she was _already_ in trouble, or else she wouldn’t be trying to wake up her big cousin at eleven at night.

Knuckles knocked insistently at the door down the hall, the once-guest room that was now designated as Robert’s Room. Jenny was disappointed when she was told that he wouldn’t be sleeping in her room like he always did when he visited every summer, but Mom had said that Robert needed “space” after “everything he went through”.

(No one really talked about it, “what Robert went through”, and it drove Jennifer nuts. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew her uncle must’ve done something really bad, and that something must have had something to do with her favorite aunt being dead. Not “gone”, not “deceased”, _dead_. It made a fire burn deep in her stomach, a feeling it would take years for her to conceptualize as _fury_. Not just anger, but _righteous_ fury. Jennifer tried her best not to let it show, because ladies weren’t supposed to get angry. And all the anger in the world wouldn’t bring Robert’s mom back.)

So Mom and Dad told Jenny not to “bug” their newest full-time family member, but Robbie had never complained about hanging out with Jen before. That was one of her favorite things about him: even though he was super smart, he never made Jen feel stupid. He used to take her everywhere when he visited every summer, holding her hand and talking her ear off about stuff she didn’t get, but for some reason, Jen never felt bored. Listening to Robert when he was excited about something just made you excited, too. And when she went on and on about the softball team, or her newest video game, or how she “experimented” with firecrackers with her friends, he never got bored, either. (Though he did tell her to be more careful with her experiments in the future.)

Robbie didn’t talk as much anymore, though. Not that she got to see him as much as usual – when he wasn’t at school, he was usually in his room. He didn’t even come out for dinner most nights, and mom would make a special plate to bring him instead. (Mom let Jen put gummy worms on his plate one night, picking out the ones with his favorite colors to send to him.) Jenny knew that he was really sad, and that he “needed time”.

The thing was, this was an _emergency,_ and Jen needed Robbie _now_.

So she kept knocking on his door, over and over again, until it finally cracked open.

Robert’s hair was a mess, curls flying everywhere, and he had obviously just put on his glasses, eyes squinting at her shape in the darkness. The lamp in his room barely illuminated his face, and it made the circles under his eyes were heavy and dark. Even though it had been a few months since he’d moved in, the room was still undecorated, devoid of anything that made Robbie, well, _him_. No posters, no geeky science equipment, no books. Just the bare minimum.

“Hi,” Jen whispered, momentarily strangely shy. This was really the first time the two of them had been alone together since…well, since.

“Jenny?” Robert rubbed his eyes, “What’s going on?”

Instead of answering, Jen grabbed him by the hand, all hesitancy suddenly gone as she pulled him down the hall and down the stairs as quietly as she could manage, until they made it to the basement. She flipped the switch for the dim light above, and Jen’s utter disaster of a science project appeared in front of them, paper and glue and building blocks halfhazardly thrown together to make something that _might_ of passed for a building. Of some sort.

Robbie peered at the mess – studied it, because Jen knew what Robbie’s faces meant, since she was an expert – and then turned back to Jen with a wry look on his face.

“Don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“It’s an emergency!”

“It’s not _that_ bad,” Robbie said, crossing his arms in front of him. “Whatever this is…what is it supposed to be, anyway?”

Jennifer let out a world-weary sigh. “It’s supposed to explode.”

_“…why_?”

“Because I want it to?

And suddenly, Robbie laughed. It wasn’t a big laugh, like her dad made, but it was still a laugh, and Jen automatically giggled in response. (There had been a thought, a really dark thought that she never let herself think for long these past few months: maybe Robbie would never be happy again.)

“And this is for…school?” Robbie pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, and it was already so much more like _him_ than he had been since he moved here, Jen couldn’t stop herself from talking, opening up like she always did around him. Almost like was _before_.

“It’s for extra credit ‘cause I’m failing science, and Mrs. Debra might be evil and she totally hates me, but I need to make something to impress her and the lab class and give me some extra points so I thought, you know, since I have a cousin who’s a genius, like a super-genius, definitely the smartest person in the world, in the top five at _least_ -“

“You’re buttering me up,” Robbie said, but he was still smiling.

“No I’m not, it’s the truth!” Jen said defensively, then tried to huff like her mom did when she seemed mad, but it came out more like a whistle than anything else.

“Sure, okay, but isn’t it against the rules to get my help?”

“Nuh-uh, you’ve giving me _guidance_ , that’s different. In fact, it’s encouraged.”

“Mhm.”

“Mentoring plays a big part in a healthy educational environment.” Jen hadn’t studied the school guidebook at the beginning of the year for no reason.

Robbie’s smile just got bigger at that, so Jen gave in to the urge to fling herself at her big cousin, arms flapping around his shoulders as she played out a pantomime of desperation.

“Pleaaaaase Robbie-wan-Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” she harped as quietly as she could, clinging to Robert’s pajama shirt and starting to dramatically fall to the concrete basement like she was breathing her last breath.

“Using Star Wars is chea -- _Okay_ , Princess Jenny, okay!” Robert pulled her upright with ease. When Jen was back on her feet, however, Robert wasn’t laughing anymore. His eyes looked far away, but Jen knew that he was still thinking about something, something important.

“Hey Jen?” he asked then, voice much more hushed. “Do you think you could call me Bruce instead?”

She shrugged. “Sure,” she said, trying to play it off like it wasn’t a big deal.

(It was a big deal. That was her secret talent, after all: Jennifer knew how Robert Bruce Banner worked.)

“Does that mean I can call you Brucie, then? Wait wait wait, no –“

“Don’t say it, please.”

“Brucie-Bear! Cuuuuute.”

“Never mind, you’re on your own, Princess.”

“Noooooooooo!”

(She didn’t mind if he was Bruce now, as long as he was still _him_.)


End file.
